


Lyra and Oliver Belacqua

by daemons_galore



Category: His Dark Materials (TV), His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass (2007)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:47:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29315070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daemons_galore/pseuds/daemons_galore
Summary: Imagine if it wasn’t just Lyra to be born from Asriel and Marisa’s love affair, what if Lyra also had a twin brother, Oliver? Starting the story off from Cittagaze and aspects of Wills story instead become Olivers, meaning that both Oliver and Lyra are to share a great destiny for which they will need to work together. They must also work together to learn to trust their mother.
Relationships: Carlo Boreal/Marisa Coulter, Lyra Belacqua & Marisa Coulter, Lyra Belacqua & Pantalaimon, Marisa Coulter & Marisa Coulter's Daemon, Marisa Coulter & Mary Malone
Kudos: 22





	1. Walking through the window

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story idea that I’ve been wanting to develop for ages, hope you like it! Just to clarify, the story remains that Lyra is the child who can read the alethiometer, but her twin brother Oliver can too. Pan is still Lyra’s daemon and the name of Oliver’s daemon is Ariette.

The two children began walking down the mountain after walking through the long window that they entered in their world, leaving behind the best friend that they shared and a way of life that they couldn’t imagine not living in. The sun shone down on the two children and their daemons, lighting up the chestnutty brown hair of the twins, already turning it partially golden after spending so many weeks in the darkness of the North.

The heat of the sun caused the children to take their fur coats off quite soon into the walk, after which they tied their coats securely around their waists. After walking silently for a further 100 yards, Oliver voiced to his sister “I do hope we don’t end up regretting not calling after our mother when we saw her walking down the mountain, away from the window”. Lyra simply replied with “if we’d called out to her she’d have made us go back to London with her, and after what happened in the flat when the golden monkey attacked Pan, I don’t think I’m ready to live so closely with her again, not at the moment anyway”. The twins stopped and looked at each other after Lyra said this, both thinking back to that afternoon, until Oliver said “she did seem genuinely sorry back at the station though, I think that in time we could learn to trust her again” to which Lyra said “I want to trust her, but I feel like I can’t at the moment”. The twins then looked thoughtfully at each other and continued walking down the mountain. The walk had become very treacherous near the end of the mountain so they decided to sit down to rest as their legs had begun to ache.

Whilst the children were sitting and talking and giggling with each other, both Pan and Ariette became skylarks and flew into the air to gain an understanding of the landscape around them. Ariette then called out “gosh, we are just short of a mile from a town, it looks like the city in the sky from Asriels photogram!”. At this, both Oliver and Lyra shot the heads up to look at their daemons, looked at each other excitedly and then jumped up and together sprinted down the rest of the mountain, after which they were walking on flat terrain which made the walk altogether much more enjoyable.

Pretty soon into the latter part of the walk, Lyra walked through a thick part of tree branches, Pan changing into many different shapes to try to use his best form to help Lyra. Once through, she was met by the town that Ariette had spotted when flying with Pan. Oliver then tumbled through the tree branches to end up by Lyras feet, he quickly (in an embarrassed way) got back on his feet and was gazing up at the tall buildings which stood before him and Lyra. The twins had to then walk around part of the exterior of the city until they found some sort of entrance. When the sun was starting to set they finally found a tall gate that they could climb over to get into the town. They both then easily climbed over the gate and became eager to find somewhere to settle and rest after having a busy day of walking. The two children then walked into a pretty square surrounded by pleasant cafes. Suddenly it dawned on the two children that the town seemed deserted as as yet they hadn’t come across a single person in the town. Oliver then carefully walked up to the most inviting looking cafe in the square and went inside to check for anyone who might be inside. From the inside Oliver then shouted to Lyra “come in, no one’s here, we can rest here for the time being”. Gratefully, Lyra then walked into the cafe and tiredly walked up the wooden staircase at the back of the cafe. On the first floor Lyra found Oliver already settled on a double bed already showing the signs of falling asleep, but he did manage to say “that bed up by the window looks nice and comfy for you” whilst tiredly pointing over to another double bed placed by a nicely placed window. Lyra then dragged her feet over to bed and quietly sat herself on it, placing her head onto the pillow and kicking her tired feet on the bed, falling asleep instantly.


	2. Exploring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Oliver and Lyra have found and settled in Cittagazze, they now need to do some exploring to really get to know the new area that they`ve found themselves in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys - got lots of ideas of how to extend this story with the new character of Oliver in mind. Hope you like this new chapter :)

As the sun rose to welcome a new day in Cittagazze, both Lyra and Oliver began to stir as the sun began creeping in through the many windows of the first floor of the welcoming looking cafe.

Pan and Arriete had also began to stir and eventually rose from comfortably laying down, to stretching their muscles away to signal to their humans that it was finally time to get up.

As the two children rose from their beds Lyra moaned "I`m so hungry, we haven`t eaten properly since we were at fa - I mean Lord Asriels laboratory", Oliver then paused at this, because it was the first time for either of them to nearly refer to them as their father. Although the two of them knew perfectly well that Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter were their parents, it was still hard for them to come round to thinking of them as anything other than Lord/Uncle Asriel, and Mrs Coulter. Despite this, both children were keen to start thinking of the two adults as mother and father, more so to call Mrs Coulter mother, as she had now proved multiple times that she only wants to protect the two children, as she had now saved them multiple times.

Oliver chose to avoid the fact that Lyra had almost called Lord Asriel father and simply said to his sister "I saw lot of cooking equipment downstairs when we arrived last night, lets go see if there`s some food down there that can still be eaten. The two children then went downstairs with their daemons trailing behind them whilst nuzzling into each other to say good morning. Both children were surprised to see that downstairs looked as if the residents of this cafe had had to leave in a hurry, as things had just been left lying around and had not been tidied away as things would usually be when people are going away. Oliver was also surprised with himself that he hadn`t noticed how strange the kitchen looked when they arrived last night, as he was usually very observant, but he then reminded himself that it was dark in here last night and he was tired out from a full days walking.

Both Lyra and Oliver then set to finding food that was edible and pretty soon Lyra had found a loaf of bread that hadn`t gone stale yet, and Oliver found half a dozen eggs in some sort of box which when you opened it let out a burst of cold air. Oliver then grabbed the eggs and walked over to Lyra, as the two children saw what food the other one was holding they each said at the same time "egg on toast?" and they both giggled together as it dawned on them that they were both thinking the same thing. Smiling, Oliver then said "that sounds great, but we`ll have to work out how to use their cooking equipment first, we don`t want to give ourselves food poisoning while we`re here, we`d have no one to help us or give us medicine" Lyra then subtly rolled her eyes thinking to herself, typical Oliver, always looking at the worst case scenario.

Pretty quickly the two children worked out together how to turn the stove and the grill on, placing their cut up bread underneath the grill to get it toasty and cracking the eggs into a frying pan, with Oliver turning them over regularly to make sure that they were evenly cooked. Whilst Oliver was watching the eggs, Lyra went in the search of butter to put on their toast and soon found some in the same box that Oliver had found the eggs in. She then took care to get the toasted bread from out of the grill and buttered the toast ready for the eggs to be put on top. She had just finished buttering the last piece of bread when Oliver came up behind her with the full frying pan and spatula, he then neatly scooped equal amounts of egg onto both of their plates, just as both of their tummies gave a chorused rumble, signalling that they were indeed ready for some nice food. After placing the cooking utensils in the sink, the children then walked out into the pretty square to sit at a table together to eat their breakfast. It was indeed very delicious and did a good job of filling up their empty bellies. Throughout the meal both children were laughing and giggling together, just as they had always done as they had always been very close as throughout their short lives they always knew that they had each other and would always be there for one another.

Once they had finished their meal, the two children and their daemons began exploring Cittagazze, having seen so little of it last night. After walking through the winding streets for an hour or so, the sun had risen so high that the heat was setting on the children, making the walk far less enjoyable. After walking around what felt like the 100th corner, Lyra then looked over her shoulder and noticed some steps going down onto a beach where the sea was a beautiful clear blue and looked so inviting compared to this hot laboursome walk, she then shouted "Oliver look!", her brother then turned his head towards her and his eyes lit up as he saw the clear, cool looking water. The two children simply looked at each other and without saying a work they both simultaneously began racing each other towards the sea. The relief of the cool water was so refreshing to the children. They had to take care to get used to the notion of swimming again as they had been swimming since they were last in Jordan, all those months ago, however, the instinct to kick their feet and use their arms in the water soon came back to them and together they were able to comfortably swim around the lagoon. Having been so excited to get into the water quickly, the two children had unfortunately soaked their clothes and therefore had to go in search of some new ones to change into, until their own clothes had tried in the boiling sun.

After coming up from the beach, the two children began walking back to the pretty square and the cafe they had slept in last night. Pretty soon into the walk the children stumbled upon a clothes boutique. They apprehensively walked inside to find it empty, just like everywhere in this town. They spent a while looking through the clothes in the boutique as there was such a large array of clothes available. Eventually, Oliver decided to go with a pair of pale blue shorts, a cobalt blue buttoned up shirt and some white laced shoes, whilst Lyra decided to go with a teal, short legged playsuit which had short, ruffled sleeved on the arm, and a pair of white laced shoes (just like Olivers). The children bagged up their new clothes having decided to change into them once they had washed back at the cafe.

When the children got back to the cafe, they placed their bags of clothes onto the bed and then went in search through the first and upper floors in search of washing facilities. They eventually stumbled upon a room which was decorated with matching bottle-green tiles on the floor and wall (floor to ceiling). In this room there was a large sink area, along with a toilet and an area which was sheltered by a thick sheet of glass. In the sheltered area there was a thin pipe coming from the ceiling, on the end of which there was a large circular looking thing which had holes in it. Underneath the pipe there were taps, sort of like the ones you`d find on a sink. Whilst the two children were standing in the sheltered area, curiosity overtook Lyra and she reached out and pulled one of the taps from the wall which caused a rush of water to spurt out of the circular looking looking plate attached to the plate, the two children rushed from the onset of water as it was freezing cold, but after letting the water run for a few minutes the water became warmer. Oliver then said excitedly "this is brilliant, it`s like a stand up bath!". The children then laughed together at the fact that they had stumbled upon this new discovery together. Lyra then said "so who should go first?" her brother replied with "you go if you want, shout down to me when you`re out, I`ll go down and wash the dishes from our breakfast".

Oliver managed to wash all the kitchen utensils they had used to prepare breakfast in the time that it took Lyra to have a wash. Lyra shouted down the stairs "Oliver! I`m finished, your turn now". Oliver then rushed up the stairs, eager to have a wash to get the salt water off him. He found the stand up bath very refreshing and after eventually managing to turn the water off, he gratefully grabbed a towel to dry himself and then went down to his bedroom to put his new clothes on. He then grabbed his other wet clothes and took them downstairs with the intention of putting them out to dry in the sun. Upon doing that, he noticed that his sister had already done the same thing with her clothes and was now walking around the square looking into the other cafe`s and shops that surrounded the square.

The twins then came back together and decided to take another walk to explore what was around them, only this time they would walk to the other side of the town to the one they went to this morning. After only walking for 10 minutes or so, talking and laughing easily as they always did, Lyra grabbed Olivers shoulder sharply, causing him to stop and look back at her. Lyra then said quietly "look Oliver, up the path" she then pointed forward and Oliver looked in the direction she was pointing and he immediately saw what had taken her attention - "another window" they both said together. Slowly, they then walked up to the window which was just floating in the air. It looked so much like the window that they had walked through only yesterday. The twins then looked at each other, clearly thinking to themselves, should we walk through?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it :)


	3. New Oxford

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that they have stumbled upon this new found window into yet another world, Oliver and Lyra need to consult their trusted alethiometer and decide together whether to go through...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really enjoying writing these chapters guys, so here`s a new story that I`ve formulated in my mind, hope you like it.

As the twins stood before the new found window, they continued to stare both at each other, and occasionally through the window into the new world. Oliver then mumbled to his sister "I think we need to ask the alethiometer if we should go through or not". Lyra snappily replied by saying "are you joking? After how it let us down with Roger I never want to trust it again", she then walked away from the window and sat on a step a few yards away, with her back facing her brother and the window. Oliver then said "I know it let us down badly Lyra, but we can`t forget how much it had helped us before what happened with Roger" he could then see that these words had registered with Lyra and that she was thinking back to all the times that it had helped them on their journey. Oliver then sat down beside his sister and gently said "if you don`t want to ask the alethiometer then it`s okay, I just thought it might be best because we`re unsure whether to go through or not". The twins then looked at each other, until Lyra nodded and then reached into her bag to bring out the formerly trusted alethiometer. Together, the twins pointed the needles to the necessary symbols to ask their questions, they then emptied and relaxed their minds to ask the question of whether to go through. Lyra and Oliver then gasped simultaneously and Lyra excitedly said "it`s Oxford" "but not our Oxford" her brother quickly said, "perhaps we could visit the college to try to find out more about dust?". They both sat and thought about this until Oliver said "yes, that would be a good idea, as we know so little about it, and as it`s not our world they might be more willing to talk about dust, even to children like us". Lyra then stood up from her sitting position on the step and help her hand out to her brother before saying "come on then, lets go before we change our minds". Oliver slowly got up and hand-in-hand with his sister, they walked through to this new Oxford.

When they entered the new world they found themselves in a square, much like the one in Cittagazze, only much greener and with the sounds of people around. This delighted the twins, after spending a few hours in the complete, unnatural silence of Cittagazze. Without thinking, the children walked forward with the intention of crossing the road in front of them, only to hear a loud sound that went "beeeeep" and then saw a large black car swerve out of their way with the driver shouting words that were inaudible. The sudden sound of the beep had caused the children to stumble and fall down, after which they then got back on their feet, both suddenly noticing a most unpleasant searing pain in their knees and shins. The commotion had caught the attention of the people in the area, who were now staring at both Oliver and Lyra, with one person eventually shouting "you need to look before just stepping out into a road like that". Then, embarrassedly, Oliver grabbed the hand of his sister and led her away from the people who were still staring at them, rather unkindly he thought. Lyra then said to her brother "did you hurt yourself when you fell?" Oliver just nodded in response to his sister, which then prompted her to say "me too". They then both looked at each others legs and noticed how they were looking cut/scraped and they both knew then eventually they would also turn bloody. "We`ll have to wash ourselves up, we can`t go walking around with our legs like this, people will get suspicious and start asking questions" Lyra simply nodded back to her brother. The twins continued walking in their new found Oxford, wishing that their daemons could see it for themselves, but they had quickly decided to keep them hidden as they could see that there were no daemons in this world. Eventually, the children were walking through a park, empty apart from themselves. The park held multiple water fountains, which Oliver thought was perfect, for him and Lyra to be able to use the water to clean up their legs. After grabbing a few handfuls of water each and dabbing them onto their legs, the twins felt that they looked absolutely fine, a bit wet obviously but they would soon dry. Lyra then looked over her right shoulder and noticed a sign pointing to the left saying Oxford College/University 200 yards away, quickly tapping her brother on the arm she pointed to the sign, to which Oliver said "brilliant, we can find Jordan college there and then ask the scholars about dust". The twins then ran the 200 yards to the left to indeed find the Oxford College/University that they knew so well, although the surrounding areas were different to theirs, for example they didn`t have the tree just outside the main entrance that they had carved their initials onto with Roger all those years ago. The children then walked around the College looking for their familiar territory of Jordan College, at no point could they find it, instead, in the place where it should have been there was an entranceway with a sign outside saying "Museum on the History of Lapland", after reading this, the twins looked at each other and silently agreed to walk in, as they were always keen to see interesting things relating to their beloved North. They soon realised that the discoveries they had made of Lapland in this world, were entirely different to the ones they had made in their own world, in fact the only discovery that the worlds had in common was the process of trepanning, it meant the same in this world as it did in their world. After walking around the museum for a bit they sat down at a bench where Lyra said "well we obviously won`t be able to talk to scholars from Jordan College to ask about dust, but perhaps there`s someone else who could help us?" "yeah, maybe" Oliver replied with. Looking over his shoulder, Oliver said to his sister, "tell you what, you ask the alethiometer but I`ll keep watch to tell you if someone`s coming, we don`t want to be seen with it if we can help it, it`ll only cause more questions". Rolling her eyes, Lyra then set to ask the alethiometer if there was someone who else who could help them, it quickly responded with "go to the scholar in the building which you knew as St Sophia`s College, look for the door with the mountain on it". She quickly folded the alethiometer back up, put it in her bag and said to her brother "we need to go to St Sophia`s College". Oliver simply nodded in response and followed his sister out of the museum, until suddenly, when they were almost at the entrance way, a tall man walked into the aisle, causing both children to bump into him. He quickly turned round and said his apologies and explained that he had been in a world of his own, to which the children had assured him it was no problem. The children then quickly turned to look at a display, which conveniently was on trepanning. The stranger then said "are you interested in skulls?" to which the children simply responded "mmm" simply to want to show to the man that they weren`t particularly keen to talk, but he kept talking and said "do you know that people still do that sometimes, I do forget what the process is called" without looking at him Lyra said "trepanning" "yes, you are right, how clever you are, my name is Charles by the way, Charles Latrom", the twins turned to look at him and each said their names "Lizzie" Lyra said, just before Oliver mumbled "Mark", the man before them then nodded to himself and reached into his suit pocket pulling out a piece of paper which he handed to Oliver saying "if you would ever like to have a discussion about this trepanning process, please give me a call, my number and address are both on this card". Oliver then hesitantly took the card from this stranger and then put it into his shorts pocket. "Well it was nice to meet you, we`d better be on our way otherwise our Mum will worry" Lyra said, Mr Latrom then replied, "I`m sure she will, well goodbye Lizzie and Mark, it was lovely to meet you both". The children then almost ran out of the museum until the man shouted "Lizzie, I believe you left you bag here", stopping, Lyra then turned round and ran back to the man and said "thank you" and then took her bag back off him.

After leaving the museum the twins then took to walking over to St Sophia`s College. They were both quite quiet on this walk, until Oliver said "did Mr Latrom remind you of someone we know? He face looked quite familiar to me" Lyra then replied saying "yes, I thought he looked quite familiar too". Eventually, they came to where they knew as St Sophia`s College and walked through the entranceway of a new building and walked through it`s winding corridors until they came to a door which indeed had a mountain on it. "This is it, whoevers in here may be able to help us" Lyra said, Oliver replied saying "let`s hope so". They knocked on the door and heard a voice say "come in" at which point they turned the door handle and walked into the room to be met by the stare of a red-headed woman, who they thought must have been of a similar age to their Mother. The woman kindly said "hello you two, how can I help you?" to which Oliver said "would we be able to talk to the scholar please?" to which the woman just stared at him and said "I don`t know anyone here who`s a scholar, however I do know many lecturers in this University, in fact I`m one myself so perhaps I would be able to help you?". The children then beamed in equal measure, causing the woman to smile back at them, to which Lyra said "would you be able to tell us about dust please?". "Dust?" the woman simply replied, "you might call it something different here but we`ve only ever known it as dust". The woman was then silent for a few seconds until she said "I tell you what, how about we have a sit down together, have a cup of tea, properly introduce ourselves and then I can try to answer you`re questions, does that sound okay?". The children then nodded silently, walking over to the seats that the woman indicated for them to sit in. The woman boiled the kettle and brought a tea pot and cups over to their little sitting area. Whilst allowing the tea to brew, she said "my name is Dr Mary Malone, I study dark matter here at the University of Oxford, what are your names?" the children then truthfully introduced themselves as Oliver and Lyra before holding out their hands to shake Mary`s in order to politely (and properly) introduce themselves. Mary shook both of their hands in turn and then set to pouring the tea and then instructed the children to help themselves to milk and sugar. Lyra quickly go to saying "so you don`t have our sort of dust here, as it`s most likely called something else, could you perhaps tell us about dark matter?" "please" Oliver then added in. Mary looked delighted and said "of course, I`d love tell you all that I know about dark matter". Mary then went into a long discussion of what dark matter was, both Lyra and Oliver just sat and listened in silence as Mary explanation matched the few details that they were already aware of about dust. At the end of Mary`s explanation both children exclaimed "wow!" and Oliver quietly said to Lyra "from Dr Malone`s explanation it sounds as if it`s dust that causes the alethiometer to work". Mary had very keen hearing and of course heard what Oliver said, which prompted her to say "what`s an alethiometer?". Lyra then went to reach into her bag to show Dr Malone the alethiometer, only to find that it was gone. She jumped from her seat and started searching the area looking for it, hoping that it had perhaps just fallen out of her bag, she quickly became distressed and started crying, saying to Oliver "it`s gone, it`s gone" Oliver then quickly said "it must have been Mr Latrom who took it when he gave you your bag back earlier, do you still have his card?" Mary then put her hand on Lyra`s shoulder and said "have you lost your toy, Lyra?" to which both children looked at Dr Malone and Lyra said "it`s not a toy, it`s something I read which tells me the truth in answer to any question I ask it". Lyra then reached into her pocket and brought out Mr Latrom`s card, reading out his address, panicking that they had no idea where it was. Dr Malone then explained to them how to get to that address from where they were, also adding "it`s late afternoon now so you may want to go there to get it back soon as it will be getting dark soon". To which both children then thanked Dr Malone for her help and said that it had been very nice to meet her, Dr Malone returned the compliment by saying it had been very nice to meet them too and that their conversation had been the most interesting one that she`d had in ages, which made both children smile. Then, saying goodbye, both children left Dr Malones office and went in search of Mr Latrom`s address.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed this guys, plenty more chapters still to come!


	4. Mr Latroms House

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After realising that their trusted alethiometer has gone missing, Oliver and Lyra go in search of the man the man they believe to have taken it, but will it be that simple to just get it back off him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out guys, it`s been a busy time. Hope you enjoy it :)

The twins followed the directions they had been given to Mr Latroms address, once they had found the correct number house, they were delighted to realise that they were in the same square as the window they had used to enter this world. This gave both children an immense sense of relief as they knew that once leaving Mr Latroms house (hopefully with the alethiometer) they could quickly get back to Cittagazze and away from this new found Oxford. Turning back towards the house, they noticed that there was a car parked on the drive outside, which filled them with hope that Mr Latrom would be home. Oliver turned to his sister and said "you ready?" to which Lyra simply replied "we have to get the alethiometer back, we need to go in whether we feel ready or not". Simultaneously the twins just nodded to each other, then turning to walk up the drive nervously, not knowing what to expect when they confronted Mr Latrom of taking the alethiometer. Once they reached the tall, grey front door, Lyra pressed what she believed to be the doorbell and then stepped away to stand with her brother to wait for the door to be answered.

Quite quickly, they saw a light turn on beyond the door, and then a shadow through the glass of the door and key turning before the door was opened, revealing Mr Latrom. The tall man smiled gently at the twins before saying "Lizzie! Mark! How lovely to see you both so soon. Would you like to come in? It`s getting cold out there". The twins simply nodded in response to the invitation to come inside, they carefully walked inside, being careful to not bump into any of Mr Latroms belongings. Behind them, they could hear Mr Latrom locking the door they had just come through, and he then pressed a few buttons on the wall (something that Oliver and Lyra had never seen before, and soon filled them with curiousity as to what it was). Mr Latrom then said "my sitting room is just downstairs, can I get you both a cup of tea?" Lyra replied a little too quickly saying "not for me", the man then looked at Oliver too, who then said "nor for me either, thank you", the man then nodded and said "if you would just follow me then". The twins then followed Latrom through another door which led them down a set of stairs which brought them into a comfortable seating area, the man said to the children "please take a seat" before sitting down himself on the other side of the sofa. The two children then sat down, each looking around this new environment for any sign of the alethiometer. Presently, Latrom then coughed to regain the childrens attention, when they looked back at him, he said "is there anything I can help you both with?". Lyra quickly thought to herself that there was no point in beating around the bush, she may as well ask straight away "yes actually Mr Latrom, when I was in the museum earlier, I had something in my backpack, which I`ve now realised has gone missing", Lyra then looked at her brother, who then added in "we were wondering if perhaps you had seen it and could direct us to where it is please?". In response to the childrens request, Latrom just frowned, before nodding to himself. He slowly rose from the sofa, before walking to the left hand corner of the room, he then turned round with something in his hand. Once he had approached the children he opened his hand to reveal their beloved golden alethiometer. Both children looked at the item which then prompted Latrom to say "is this what your looking for?" to which Lyra jumped up from the sofa and said "yes, Sir, that`s mine!" before her brother also jumped up beside her, neither of the children dared to take their eyes away from their trusted alethiometer. Latrom then closed his hands around the golden item before saying "but this can`t be what your looking for, as this is mine, I found it so it technically now belongs to me". This statement quickly brewed anger within Lyra who then shouted "you didn`t find it you stole it!". This outburst didn`t take Latrom by surprise, in fact he simply stood and grinned at the girl before saying "don`t you dare use that tone of voice at me you little brat", Lyra then glared at the man. Not wanting any more trouble, Oliver got between the two of them and said "please, lets just make a deal, we need our item back, surely there`s something we can exchange with you in return for it?". Again, Latrom just grinned before saying to the boy "you catch on quickly Oliver, it`s just a shame that Lyra`s outburst just now has put me in a mood that is not very accomodating". Both children just paused at this, each wondering "how on earth could he know our real names?" Latrom then quietly laughed before saying "do you really not recognise me at all?" and then, it dawned on the twins in the exact same moment where they knew Latrom from, they gasped and each said "the party in London", to which Latrom nodded and then said "neither of you are as astute as your mother, such a shame that you had to inherit the Belacqua families intelligence". This hit a nerve in both Lyra and Oliver, they doubted whether he would be saying that to them if he knew that they could both read the alethiometer, far better than any Magisterium official. Latrom then put the alethiometer away in a corner drawer, before saying "as it so happens there is something that I want, for which I will be willing to make an exchange for the alethiometer, do either of you know where the tower is in Cittagazze?" at which the twins nodded silently. "In the tower there is something I desire very dearly, it`s called the sacred knife, you get me that, bring it to me and you can have the alethiometer". At this, the twins looked at each other, a thought passing between them that they really had no choice, they had to get this knife in order to have their alethiometer back. Oliver simply mumbled back "fine, we`ll get you the knife, but don`t you dare try to trick us by not giving us the alethiometer back when we bring the knife to you". At this, Latrom grinned yet again, saying "I wouldn`t dream of tricking either of you. You`d better get going now if you want to bring me that knife as soon as possible". Latrom then silently led the children out of the seating area, he opened the front door and said to the children "I hope to see you with the knife soon", at which the children walked through the doorway and presently heard the door slam behind them.

The children then ran straight to the window that would lead them back to Cittagazze, not stopping until they were in front of the tower mentioned by Latrom. Catching their breath, the children suddenly realised how tired they were and eventually resigned themselves to realise that now was not the time to go in search of the knife, they needed to rest first after such an eventful day. They then silently walked back to their cafe, finally allowing their daemons to walk alongside them after having to stay hidden for such a while in their new found Oxford. Walking into the now familiar looking kitchen, Oliver opened the cold box, finding two bottles of ice cold orange juice for them both to drink. Whilst drinking their orange juice, both children reassured each other that they were more than capable of finding this knife. They had overcome so many obstacles in their short lives that a knife in a tower was surely not going to stop them. Once they had finished their orange juices, feeling optimistic, they then took themselves to bed, wanting to get their rest for tomorrows new adventure. They had quickly each climbed onto their beds, put their heads on their pillows and no sooner fallen asleep after such an eventful day. Sadly though, both childrens dreams were quite troubled, looking back over the last few months events, particularly what had happened after they left Bolvangar, leaving their mother behind. Needless to say, both children were very relieved when they finally woke up from their terrible dreams, just as the sun was rising to welcome a new day in Cittagazze.

After a quick breakfast of surprisingly fresh fruit and a shower, both children were quickly back in front of the tower, suddenly noticing a door off it`s hinges at the bottom of it. Before entering through the door, both children looked up the tower, each admiring it`s amazing architecture, it reminded them both slightly of the architecture that they grew up around in Jordan. Once their gazes had reached the top of the tower, they each noticed a young man standing in a window, looking down at the both of them. Both childrens daemons had turned into birds and each flew as high up the tower as their separation would allow, both Pan and Arriette soon swooped back down before Pan said "he`s got an awfully mad grin on his face" "and he keeps giggling to himself!" gasped Arriette. Both Oliver and Lyra then looked at each other nervously before Lyra said "Oliver, we simply can`t just leave the alethiometer with Latrom, we have to at least try to get this knife" at which Oliver then nodded, before walking through the door with the broken hinges. The children simply climbed up the stairs for what felt like forever, until they finally came to a landing which had floor to ceiling windows all around, allowing a 360 degree view of the whole city. They were just admiring the view when they spotted the boy that they had seen up here before they had entered the tower. Both children then ducked to the floor, at which they heard a slight moan, both children gasped, not expecting to have heard the strange sound, they both slowly turned their heads to see an old man tied up, with his mouth bounded up to stop him making any loud noises. Oliver then crawled up to the older man, relieving him of the cotton covering his mouth, finally allowing him to take a deep breath. The man quietly said "thank you, but you really should get going, he`s a mad man, he has a knife that could hurt you both". No sooner had he said this than his eyes filled with fear and he gasped again. Oliver quickly turned round to see the young man standing in the glass window-way, with a knife that was curved in such a way that it looked unlike any knife that Oliver had ever seen. Lyra quickly crawled over to the old man to relieve him of the ropes that had tied him up. Whilst Lyra was doing this, the young man said "y-y-you shouldn`t be up here, don`t you realise how badly this knife could hurt you?" to which Oliver said "listen, I need that knife from you, someone is keeping something from me and my sister and the only way to get it back is by giving him what he wants, and he desperately wants this knife, please let`s just talk" at which the young man lunged at Oliver, pointing the knife straight at him, Oliver ducked just in time, causing the young man to fall over him. Oliver then made as much distance between him and the young man as possible, but sooner than he expected the young man ran at him again, point the knife straight at Olivers chest. Oliver then had the idea that if he jumped high enough, he could kick the knife out of the mans hand, and then race him to retrieve the knife back. No sooner had he thought of this plan than he had to put it into actual. Oliver jumped as high as he could, saw the young man swipe at him with the knife, he then kicked his leg right at the young mans hand in which he was holding the knife. After kicking the young mans hand, Oliver saw the knife come out of his hand to land near Lyra and the old man (luckily out of sight of the young man). The young man quickly panisked when he realised that the knife had gone, and quickly ran back to the landing, down the stairs and eventually Lyra saw him running out of the doorway that she and Oliver had used to come in. Oliver then walked back into the landing area and retrieved the knife, feeling very relieved that they had managed to get the knife without much trouble at all! Suddenly though he felt a sharp pain around his stomach area, the pain was so severe that he went on his knees, clutching at his stomach where he could feel the pain. The area felt all hot and sticky, he then dared to lift his shirt from over his belly, to see what was causing the pain. His heart sank as he realised that he had been cut right across his stomach, thinking to himself that it must have happened when the young man swiped at him with the knife. The old man gently approached him, put his hand on Olivers shoulder before saying "my rooms are just downstairs, if you come with me with your sister I can deal with your wound. Lyra then helped her brother to his feet and supported him down the stairs following the old man, who she found out was called Jacamo. Whilst they were following him, Lyra said to Oliver "you were so brave up there, everything`s going to be okay don`t worry, once Jacamo has cleaned you up I`m sure you`ll feel better" to which Oliver could only say "I hope so".

Finally, Jacamo led the children into a very comfortable room, where he directed Lyra to lay Oliver on a recliner chair, where Oliver could angle himself into a position for Jacamo to best treat the wound. Once Jacamo had exposed the wound, he quickly cleaned it up, then gently put some sort of antiseptic lotion all over the cut and then gently (but firmly) wrapped a bandage around Olivers stomach and back so that the wound could be left to heal. Oliver and Lyra both thanked Jacamo for helping them to which he said "it was my pleasure, it`s the least I could do for the new bearer of the subtle knife", which grabbed the childrens attention and caused Oliver to say "what? No way I`m not the bearer, I just simply needed to get the knife to soon hand it over to someone in exchange for something else, I won`t have this knife for long" at which Jacamo looked at him solemnly and said "you may not want to be bearer but you are, in the eyes of the knife you won it from that young man upstairs as you defeated him in order to retrieve the knife, it is now yours to keep safe, I myself used to be the knife bearer until that boy took it off me, I`m now trying to guide you as best as I can before I depart this life. Now listen quickly, this knife can cut into other worlds, should you want to cut into another world, you simply hold the knife in the air, and you must become the tip of the knife, once you feel that the tip of the knife has caught onto something you drag the knife through the air, but NEVER leave a window open, always close it by placing your fingers over the window and then pull them down just the same as you drag the knife through the air. I`m sorry I can`t be of more help, but I`m just so weak. Goodbye and good luck to you for your journey with the knife". The old man then took a deep breath, and sat back and closed his eyes, at which point Oliver and Lyra then looked at each other and they both knew that Jacamo was gone.

"What should we do now?" Lyra asked Oliver, quickly drying her face of the tears she had cried once realising that Jacamo had passed away. "First of all" Oliver said "lets go back to our cafe, I`ll feel much more comfortable being in an environment that we know". At which both children walked back to the doorway they had entered through, Oliver taking care to grab the knife, he then placed it safely in his pocket, ready for them to take back to Latrom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed the new chapter, plenty more still to come in order for the story to progress

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed reading my first story! Please feel free to comment underneath 😊 any ideas of how to expand the story would be greatly appreciated!


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